The Beautiful Mind of a Child

Yesterday, we went to Toys R Us to get True Hope dolls for the kids.  They didn't have the boy dolls, so I let Nate get an Avengers cup and Wes a "grab bag" Lego minifig as a consolation prize.  On the way home, Wes opened his minifig and studied the leaflet inside picturing all the minifigs in this series.  He was excited to tell me that there was a girl Olympic swimmer, knowing that I used to be a competitive swimmer and triathelete.  I was just as excited and told him that we would definitely have to get our hands on that minifig.  A little while later, Wes turned the conversation to cancer and Nate running in to our ottoman.  It dawned on me that Wes may not understand that the ottoman did not give Nate cancer.  I explained to him that it was actually a good thing that Nate ran in to the ottoman because that is how we found the cancer that had been in Nate's body since he was born.  I explained that we were lucky that we found Nate's cancer before it grew all over his body...because we found it early, the surgery and medicine were able to kill all of the cancer.  Wes asked if sometimes the doctors find the cancer too late and the kids die.  He then asked if I would be sad if we didn't find Nate's cancer early and he died.  I told him that if anything happened to any of them...I would be sad for the rest of my life.  Wes then said, "Would you be so sad that even finding an Olympic swimmer minifig would not make you happy?".  No...not even that would make me happy.  To be a child again...to think that a toy could fix anything.  I love that sweet boy.

Nate has been doing well.  This round of antibody was definitely way worse than round 1.  He really didn't fully recover for over a week.  Luckily, he only has one more round with this combination of drugs, round 4.  His appetite, bowels, mobility and energy level are just now back to where they were before.  We went to clinic last Thursday, expecting for Nate to probably need platelets.  Super Nate did it again!  His platelets and hemoglobin recovered on their own and we went out to lunch at the mall and rode the carousel instead.  Much better than a day spent at the clinic.  We also don't have to go back to clinic until next Thursday!  Two whole weeks away from PCH!  That has to be some kind of record.  Nate has 4 more days of Accutane in round 2 (of 6) and is doing really well on it.  The peeling on his face actually seems a lot less this round.  He still takes it like a champ and has begun to give himself his other medications.  He really hates the flavor of one of them and he still gives it to himself.  Such a big boy!  He is still working on mastering the potty.  Some days are better than others.  He has even had a few days with zero accidents.  It's just a little hard because the key to potty training is consistency and it's hard to be consistent when he has to live in the hospital in pain every few weeks.  The major perk to the partial potty training is that Nate peed in a cup last week.  This is huge because the only way to get the needed urine samples before was to stick a bag around his penis...which he HATES.  Also, sometimes the bag doesn't stick well enough and the sample spills in to his diaper and is ruined.  Last Monday I told him he wouldn't have to wear the bag if he peed in a cup and he did it.  Woohoo!  It's the little things.

We are thouroughly enjoying our time home and are having lots of fun out and about and making the most of every moment.